How to hook up a fish well?

[shawnn82]

i just bought a boat and it has a fish well and bait well installed. I wanna tackle the fish well first. Its basically got two holes in it. The one on the top doesnt have a pump attached but is hosed to the through hull fittin on the transom below the waterline. The hole on the bottom has a pump that drains the water out and is hosed to the through hull fittin above the waterline. Is this set up correct? While i can drain water by pumping it out, How do i fill water?

 

[joe009]

Re: How to hook up a fish well?

the pump in the bottom pumps the water into the fish well, and the water is gravity feed out the top hole.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: How to hook up a fish well?

something is backwards. The line below the waterline should have the pump, to pump water in to the well. The one above the waterline is the drain, no pump.

Hook the pump up to the line going to the top of the well, to feed it. The bottom hole is the drain. You can plug it and be careful not to overflow, or get a drain pipe.

 

[shawnn82]

Re: How to hook up a fish well?

something is backwards. The line below the waterline should have the pump, to pump water in to the well. The one above the waterline is the drain, no pump.

Hook the pump up to the line going to the top of the well, to feed it. The bottom hole is the drain. You can plug it and be careful not to overflow, or get a drain pipe.

The pump is seal fitted to the bottom hole which pumps water out, i will hook it up to the hole on top of the waterline so it pumps it out through there, the tank is sittin low so a pump would be needed to drain the water since gravity will not alow for it to drain. I guess i have to buy another pump and run it to the top hole on tank and connect it to hole below water line to fill it up.

 

[a1akeywest]

Re: How to hook up a fish well?

im not 100% sure,, but i think it fills by itself,,,, since the fil hole is under water,,, the water just kind of flows in there,,,, my cousins boat has a tube that fits into the hole,, and when the water reaches the level u want u just stick the tube into the hole and it holds the level,,,,,, i would imagine the pump out with the thru hull above the water line would be correct.....

 

[shawnn82]

Re: How to hook up a fish well?

Now if i buy a pump, and hook it up tothe through hull below waterline hole on transom, does the pump need to be in contact with water or will it if mounted at a raised level suck water out using the straw effect?
Where the hole is at, there is no place to mount a pump, it has to be via hose at a raised level higher than the waterline.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: How to hook up a fish well?

here are a couple of thoughts: you can drain the tank if it's open and you are running--just like running water out the hull.
It won't fill by itself any higher than the waterline of the boat. Well, if it does, you're sinking!

 

[Silvertip]

Re: How to hook up a fish well?

There is no single way to do this. Figure out how you want this to work. The principles are as follows"

1) Intake through hull fittings for a fill/spray pump need to be below the water line.
2) Drains do not require a pump and the through hull can indeed be below the water line. (You siimply pull the drain plug in the tank (or the stand pipe) while on plane and the water runs out because the through hull is above water while on plane. You then insert the plug or stand pipe when the tank is empty.)
3) Drains that use a pump should have the pump OUTLET above the water line to avoid sinking the boat if the pump or its plumbing fails.
4) Live/Bait wells work much better if a spray bar is used on the outlet of the fill pump.
5) To avoid flooding the boat, all live wells should have an overflow outlet with a through hull fitting out the side of the boat. Remember, water does not run uphill so that line needs to be at or below the level of the top of the tank.

Live wells that are self filling are not effective as there is no way to continually refresh the water. So your existing setup is not correct. Use the pump to fill the tank (preferably with a spray bar in the tank). Use a plug or a standpipe in the bottom hole to regulate water level. If you use a standpipe you don't the overflow as the standpipe does that. If you don't know what a standpipe is, remove the lid on the toilet tank in your bathroom. The pipe in the middle of the tank is a standpipe. If the tank gets to full it overflows into the pipe and goes down the drain.